“Guys We Despise”: Missed the Cut

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be unveiling a list. After careful consideration by the lot of Phillies Nation writers, we’ve come up with the players, teams, coaches, and umpires throughout baseball that we just don’t like. That is, on the baseball field, of course.

Manny was always being Manny. (AP)

You know, the guys that the Phillies just can’t get out. The people that just annoy you to no end. The Phillie killers, so to speak.

Well, the votes are in and we have a Top 10 coming your way, plus some of the guy who missed the cut, so to speak. That’s where we begin:

-If you remember the NLCS’s between the Phillies and Dodgers, you remember Matt Stairs‘ homers, the collapse and downfall of Jonathan Broxton, and the incredible heroics by Jimmy Rollins. What you might not remember is how Manny Ramirez haunted the Phillies both times. If you don’t, you should.

Not only do we dislike Manny for being Manny, we dislike him because he often killed the Phillies during his short stint in the National League.

Our own Don McGettigan on Manny: “Another showboat, another cheater. “Manny being Manny” made me hate the guy.”

-Put on this list by Corey Seidman, it’s apparent why; they stung the Phillies at ever opportunity during their days at the top of the Florida Marlins order. “There is nothing more frustrating than giving up singles to players, knowing they’ll end up being much more than singles,” says Corey. “I’d have preferred long home runs to all the slow burning of the top of the Marlins order in the early 2000s.”

That pretty much sums up what we all feel about the two. Pierre stole 40 bases in 91 games against the Phils in his career, posting a .310 average over 427 plate appearances. Castillo’s numbers weren’t as spectacular, but over roughly a full season against the Phillies (621 PA’s), he stole 24 bases and walked 71 times while only striking out 73 times. He was annoying, too.

If you combine the two, how much more successful are they than the Eagles defensive coordinator of the same name? Hmm…

-I call him the gnat. Corey Seidman can’t stand what he used to do to the Phillies, as he pointed out in PN TV last week. Hard to blame him. Diaz has hit 43 career home runs, with eight of them coming against the Phils. Eight! He really did a ton of damage against the NL East, but not really against anyone else outside of it.

-Garcia makes this list more for what he didn’t do with the Phillies. You remember the trade and the subsequent garbage he threw up there as a member of the team.

One of our contributors, Nick McIlwain from the Preston and Steve show on 93.3 WMMR said this about Freddy: “This is the only Phillie I’m going to put on my list. There have been plenty of bad free agent signings and bad trades over the years, but this one pissed me off the most. One win for $10 million and he failed to leg out a run to first base. A total bust and it never even seemed to bother the guy.”

Pretty much sums it up. He didn’t give a crap about being injured and stinking up the joint; at least not outwardly. And when you do that in Philly, you are an enemy.

-Maybe we don’t despise Curt Schilling, but there are plenty of people out there who were bothered when he asked out of Philly to win a title. You can hardly blame him for it, because at the time the team was downright garbage. It’s also the extra-curricular stuff that bothers everyone. Not only did he win titles elsewhere, he’s always seemingly poking his head in places it shouldn’t be.